Mobile NixOS

This is expected to be built against the nixos-unstable for now.

2-minutes startup

For an already bootloader-unlocked Android-based, fastboot-using device.

# Build a boot image
nix-build --argstr device $DEVICE -A build.android-bootimg

# Reboot the phone to fastboot
adb wait-for-device && adb reboot bootloader

# Use fastboot to boot the produced image
fastboot boot result

Booting qemu

The qemu target has a vm build output, which results in a script that will automatically start the "virtual device".

# Build the system
nix-build --argstr device qemu-x86_64 -A build.vm

# Run the VM, using the script
./result

local.nix

This file is used to work on producing build artifacts from the "WIP" repository checkout. This is equivalent to adding settings in configuration.nix.

If the file does not exist, it will not fail.

A sample local.nix:

{ lib, ... }:

{
  mobile.boot.stage-1.splash.enable = false;
}

This will disable splash screens.

Note that this can be set to another file with <mobile-nixos-configuration>. By setting it to the path of a nix expression, it will be used instead of using local.nix.

This is the current mechanism expected to be used to create special builds using the mobile-nixos tooling (e.g. to create a custom special boot.img).

Goals

The goal is to get a NixOS system running on mobile devices, e.g. Android phones.

This is intended as building blocks, allowing the end-users to configure their systems as desired.

The amount of targeted devices does not dilute or devalue the work. It’s the other way around, it increases the odds that people will start using the project and contribute back.

Prior work

This project initially borrowed and relied on the hard work from the PostmarketOS project. They are forever thanked in their efforts.